Multiple Organizations Team Up To Fund Public Radio

In the wake of Congress’ vote to rescind $1.1 billion in previously approved public media funding, several philanthropic groups have banded together to provide nearly $27 million to public stations most in need, with the hope of raising more funds to hit the $50 million mark this year.

The Knight Foundation, which regularly supports hundreds of nonprofit news organizations, has committed $10 million to the Public Media Bridge Fund, joined by the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Schmidt Family Foundation, Pivotal Ventures, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

On August 19^th, the New York Times published an article about the fund titled “Public Media Bridge Fund: The Race to Rescue PBS and NPR Stations”. However, according to Rima Dael, Chief Executive Officer of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, that title is a bit of misnomer.  The fund is not specifically raising money for PSB or NPR, but rather to provide emergency support to local stations, particularly those in rural and underserved areas that are most at risk with the loss of CPB.

The goal is to get this money to public radio and TV stations that have regularly received more than 30% of their funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which has announced it will shut down later this year due to the elimination of funding. These stations, many of which have already begun to lay off staff in anticipation of these cuts, tend to be located in rural areas without access to alternate sources of news and information.

Although Allegheny Mountain Radio has not designated any changes in staffing or programming at this time, our three-county network does receive over sixty percent of our current funding from the CPB and would be eligible to apply for this funding when it becomes available.

“We believe it’s crucial to have a concerted, coordinated effort to make sure that the stations that most critically need these funds right now have a pathway to get them,” Knight Foundation President and CEO Maribel Pérez Wadsworth told The New York Times. Wadsworth has urged these foundations to “move philanthropy at the speed of news.”

The effort to keep these stations afloat in the event of cancelled funding began shortly after President Trump’s election, when Tim Isgitt, head of the consulting firm Public Media Company, began working with Erik Langner, chief executive of the nonprofit Information Equity Initiative. After meeting with the CEOs of PBS and NPR, Isgitt addressed a group of philanthropists just before the House vote, laying out what losing federal funding would mean for public media: a shutdown of an estimated 115 local stations, that could lead to fewer dollars for public radio and TV programming, which may eventually cause additional local stations to close.

Following the vote to rescind, Wadsworth contacted Isgitt to discuss how philanthropists could work together to help stations, followed by meetings with these other foundations. “I wanted them to understand what was at stake,” she says.

The fund, administered by Isgitt’s Public Media Company with Langner acting as Executive Director, will solicit applications from stations, giving priority to those that have received much of their funding from CPB, and which are among the only sources of information in their communities.

Both Isgitt and Wadsworth caution that long-term, this effort cannot substitute for the federal funding public stations had regularly received, with Isgitt noting nearly $100 million would be needed over the next two years to avoid widespread closures, which could lead to stations being sold to owners who would eliminate local news and emergency services. “We’ll do the best we can with the resources available to us to secure as much local service as possible,” he says, “but if we aren’t able to raise the money, we can’t fill all the gaps.”

Rima Dael said the NFCB has been actively engaged in these conversations from the start and will serve on the advisory group helping to shape the Bridge Fund’s distribution.  She said in every conversation they have underscored two critical realities for NFCB members; the importance of covering music rights royalties, previously covered in CPB/NFCB agreements, and quantifying the impact of CPB’s loss on non-NPR community stations.  Founded in 1975, the NFCB is the oldest and largest national organization dedicated to non-profit community stations within the public media system. Allegheny Mountain Radio is an NFCB member station.

Thanks to Rima Dael of the NFCB and Inside Radio for the information in this story.